By Ryan Stonebraker
Sports Editor
DES MOINES — Wilton needed a rally to get past Denver with a 3-2 victory in a class 2A quarterfinal on Monday, July 23 at Principal Park in Des Moines. The Beavers, making their first state tournament appearance since the 2005 championship season gave their fans a lot to cheer about in the game.
"As a fan it was probably a great game to watch, but when you're coaching it's kind of a stressful game," Wilton coach Jake Souhrada said. "Cory does a nice job coming in, in pressure situations and throwing strikes. We had to put the Farley kid on base. He hit the ball hard all night. We couldn't let him beat us in that situation. We took our chances, and fortunately it went our way."
Early in the game the pitchers for both teams shined. Denver threw Zach Miller while Wilton threw Colin McCrabb. Miller was the winning pitcher in all three of Denver’s postseason games to get to state. He was 3-0 in those games, pitching in 17 1/3 innings with 19 strikeouts against four walks. Miller was 8-1 with 92 strikeouts and an ERA of 0.95 coming into state. McCrabb pitched in the Beavers 3-0 district final win over West Branch at home in his only postseason appearance before state. He pitched a 7-inning, 3-hit shutout over the Bears and struck out four.
The two pitchers were on early, as each did not allow a run in either of the first two innings of play. McCrabb had a tougher road in the first two innings as Denver advanced a runner to second in the first and to third base in the second inning, and stranded another running in the third inning, but McCrabb and the Beavers escaped the innings without surrendering any runs. Miller racked up five strikeouts and only allowed one baserunner, a Tyler Hartman walk, in the first two innings.
The first run of the game came in the third inning by Wilton in grand fashion. Wilton junior Cory Anderson smashed a deep drive to centerfield over the Cyclones outfielder’s head and the ball went to the wall. By the time the fielder got the ball after an error, Anderson was near third base and waved home. As Anderson approached home plate, Denver catcher Kain Eagle was up the baseline looking for the ball. A collision happened when Anderson and Eagle collided. Anderson rolled off Eagle, and crawled safely to home. Eagle was injured on the play and had to leave the game after being evaluated by medical personnel. The umpire ruled that Eagle was in interference of the play and Anderson was ruled safe. Sophomore reserve cather Colton Reiter replaced Eagle in the game. Eagle batted .275 in 69 at bats while Reiter had no hits in 12 at bats.
"I didn't even think I'd be going to third honestly," Anderson said. "He (coach Jake Souhrada) told me to go home, and I just kicked on the jets and made it home."
Wilton starting pitcher Colin McCrabb said the play was big for the Beavers.
“After that play where you get runs on the board, it was huge,” said Wilton starter Colin McCrabb.
“I think the football side of Cory came out. The catcher was in the way and he ran through him. It worked out,” he said.
He is a good hitter. I worked him inside, I worked outside and he beat me. He is a dangerous guy.
Neither team scored in the fourth inning. Wilton got something going against Miller. Jared Townsend and Tyler Hartman hit back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. Townsend went to third on Hartman’s single putting runners at the corners with a 1-0 lead and no outs in the fourth. Miller would strikeout both Brock Hartley and Chantz Stevens next to give Wilton two outs. Miller than got Brayton Wade to ground out to end the scoring threat.
Denver would score their only runs of the game in the top of the fifth inning. There, the Cyclones would get two runs on two hits to take a 2-1 lead. Cale Neuendorf walked to lead off the inning. McCrabb got the next batter to ground out while Neuendorf went to second base. The top of the batting order then came up for the Cyclones. Bryce Phelps reached on a bloop single sending Neuendorf to third base with one-out. Then Brock Farley drilled a McCrabb pitch to the base of the outfield wall, scoring both Neuendorf with the tying run and Phelps with the go-ahead run, setting the score at 2-1. Timmy Arians bunt singled sending pinch runner Mitchil Thuesen to third, giving the Cyclones runners at the corners with one out.
Just as Wilton players and fans thought that the momentum had shifted to Denver, the Beavers defense provided a big spark. Zach D Miller came to the plate, the eight Denver batter of the inning. Miller hit into a fielder’s choice. Miller’s infield hit was thrown home where Brock Hartley tagged out Arians trying to score for the second out of the inning. Hartley then fired to Chantz Stevens at third who tagged out Thuesen who was trying to advance from first to third on the play for the third out of the inning, turning an unconventional double play.
Wilton trailed 2-1 heading to the pivotal bottom of the sixth. McCrabb’s pitches were getting up in the count and the Beavers trailed by a run. McCrabb started the rally in the sixth in an interesting way. He was hit by a pitch. Jared Townsend then followed roping a double to the opposite field to score McCrabb with the tying run, putting the score at 2-2. Townsend advanced to third base on the play after the Cyclone outfielder couldn’t come up with the ball resulting in another error in the field. Then, Tyler Hartman reached on an error on an infield hit allowing Townsend to score on the play. and Townsend scored on the play to give Wilton the lead for good. Cory Anderson came in to relieve McCrabb, who allowed two runs in 6 2/3 innings of work, to record the last out of the game for Wilton and strand two Denver runners. His first batter he faced was Brock Farely who was intentionally walked to put runners at first and second base. The Beavers intentionally walked Brock Farley in the seventh, to put the winning run on base and tying run in scoring position. Farley had two singles and a double in the game prior to the intentional pass. It looked as if the move would backfire as Anderson uncorked a wild pitch advancing the runners one base, putting the go-ahead run in scoring position. Anderson then coaxed Timmy Arians into a 5-3 groundout to end the game. Anderson picked up his fourth save and ninth career save pitching.
Wilton had five hits in the game by four different players. Jared Townsend led Wilton batters, going 2-for-3 with a double and run scored. Tyler Hartman, Cory Anderson and Nolan Leaton all had hits. Anderson had a triple and scored on an error and Hartman had the only Beaver RBI. Colin McCrabb and Hartman also reached base via walks too. Brian Stillman had the only stolen base for Wilton.
“We all stayed calm and knew we could finish the game. We just tried to put the ball in play and it worked out for the best,” said McCrabb.
Denver was led at the plate by junior Brock Farley. Farley was 3-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI’s. Bryce Phelps was 2-for-4 with a run scored and Zach Miller had the other hit, a single. Phelps, a freshman led the Cyclones in batting this year with a .463 batting average with a team high 44 hits and 30 stolen bases to go with 27 RBI’s. Farley batted .382 this year with 11 home runs and 43 RBI’s and an .814 slugging percentage. Denver’s other six batters in their batting order were a combined 0-for-14.
"Things were looking pretty good the way he (Miller) had been pitching and our defense, the way we played the last three, four games -- and even earlier in the game,” Denver coach Dustin Rewerts said.
“You start to get a little extra excited about it, and unfortunately we just couldn't make enough plays down the stretch," he said.
Denver had reached the state tournament for the last three years, collecting a 56-win, 44-loss record over that stretch.
"For the last three years we've shown that 35 wins looks cool, but 18 can get you to the state tournament, too," Rewerts said.
Wilton won their 26th game of the season and advanced to play Centerville in a 2A semifinal. The Big Reds, the sixth seed, beat 3-seed Estherville-Lincoln Central 6-3 in the quarterfinals. The Big Reds are unranked, like Denver was. Denver ends the season 18-14.
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